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Thanks, Richard. There's too much badness for one person to remember.
I commend Thom for bringing cons on his show. But, Peter Ferrara has to be the worst. His disregard for the format of Thom's show is insulting. Can the ACRU provide a person more familiar with the rules of debate.
A couple of notes to Mr. Ferrara:
1. Volume and repetition does not create Truth. It is easy to define anything in such a limited perspective.
2. A "dialog" requires two inputs; otherwise, is it a monologue (which can be annoying at high volume).
Wow, after listening to the nasty, mannerless, disrespectful and untrue arguments by Peter Ferrara, I could feel Ferrara's authoritarian FEAR reaching right through my computer! (I almost felt sorry for him.)
Thom, the most costly drains on Medicare are private for-profit agencies draining the program for obscene profits.
Medicare Part-D with "competition" stripped out.
"Scooter" companies selling every overweight American an alternative to weight loss.
And how many times have we seen insurance companies deny coverage on the grounds "you never told us you had acne as a child" or "didn't report the bladder infection you had when you were 25"?
Thom, when an idiot filibusters on your radio show quiet his mike so you can speak. I prefer listening to you rather than listen to idiots.
Peter knows he doesn't have a leg to stand on - so, like most conservatives, he resorts to shouting and personal insults.
Don't give this guy another minute of your time Thom!
No Supreme Court Justice will leave the court. It is the greatest gravy train job in the USA.
Bellevue, WA is the principle Republican enclave in otherwise reliably liberal King County, so it must be a truism that the opinion expressed by the caller from that so-called city does suggest that conservatives have a lower IQ, What exactly was he trying to say? That in order to prevent the "lower classes" from aspiring to improve their lot in life and acquiring better jobs, we must keep them "satisfied" with janitorial work? It's odd (or not), but whenever we start on the blame-game for lack of work among blacks, and the scapegoating of Latinos for taking "their" jobs, it is always over the jobs that white people like himself find "undesirable," and who should have the cushy office jobs, like some kind of plantation system.
@MathBoy: Your observations on the construction on our legal tender are brilliant.
You need to add Union being busted, Airport Controllers being permanently furloughed, college students being turned away and high school humanities textbooks being purged.
Nels, in my second year in college I had a two semester Humanities course that was great. The course opened a person's world to the arts, music, society and culture, and comparative religions. In my Junior year and my Senior year in college I had a semester of Introduction to Anthropolgy and a semester of Cultural Anthropology. These course were also great learning experiences. College opened my world beyond my previous world in a small community of similar persons. My dad had a limited education but he was very knowledgeable in many areas. In my formative years he was my best educator.
@ mathboy
So what would be on the back of Reagan? A woman on welfare driving a Cadillac? The Berlin Wall (a foreign location)? Soldiers on the beaches of Grenada? A fictional space laser? The Debt Clock? How do you draw a picture of jobs going overseas?
I think it would have to be a congressional conference room tableau showing Oliver North raising his hand to testify while a gallery full of fundamentalist Mullahs and bandoleer clad Contra drug smugglers look on.
Ed in Redondo
If colleges turn you into a liberal, should be ban them? Does that mean ban all colleges or just liberal colleges? As I pointed out in an earlier entry, my college was labeled liberal-arts and was solidly upper-class and conservative. Banning all colleges will keep people ignorant and conservative, a perfect condition for some politicians, clergymen, despots of all kinds, snake-oil salesmen, astrologists, propagandists, capitalists, and frauds of all kinds. Education, as Jefferson pointed out, protects democracy. It protects all of a nation from the above predators.
Hi Thom,
Just a small correction. I did a paper on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator in college. The test uses Jung's personality types consisting of the opposites of:
Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I),
Sensing (S) or Intuition (N),
Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
But the fourth set of opposites used in the test, Judging (J) or Perceiving (P), was developed by Isabel Briggs Myers, and her mother, Katharine Briggs, not Jung.
~ Charell,
webmaster: www.JungInOC.org
When I first heard David Horowitz many years ago, he seemed to be a reasonable person. He changed more and more over the years. Now I hear that his daughter died two years ago and maybe he will move toward being more understanding of persons who have serious economic and health problems.
Ed in Redondo (aka DancingBear),
Your comment seems to agree with a comment I recently heard about someone's observation that so many liberterians seem to be young men who have not yet experienced a lot of life's challenges. They are often from the Ayn Rand "school."
The Roberts' court has thrown out stare decisis. His retirement, the sooner the better, can set up the opportunity to overturn Citizen's United. I'm sure there are some constitutional lawyers that can steer a case toward the SCOTUS much like Citizen's United.
By the time students get to college they are too old to be influenced by professors, no matter what they profess. I graduated from an upper-class, conservative (though it was listed as liberal-arts) private college. My political science professor, at one point, said to the class, "all change is bad." Categorically, ALL change is bad. of course I thought this was nuts. Nothing living can continue to live without change. It dies if it tries to stay the same. That includes societies.
@Anjha
Re: Educated Liberals
"If more education and higher intelligence are pre-cursors to Liberalism (or characteristics of,) and lower intelligence, levels of education and IQ are characteristics of Conservatism – then what explains Libertarianism?"
If I had to assess Libertarians as a group I'd say that unlike your typical knee-jerk conservative, they tend to have a more highly developed capacity for reason. So much so in fact that it frequently leads them to a form of intellectual hubris and even folly. Where they typically fall short is in the realm of their ability to recognize some very basic empirical truths about the nature and boundries of human nature. Their reason leads them to desire a hyper-logical social order that ignores the fact that there is much, much more to being human then just our capacity for rational self-interest. Indeed, if human nature were as Libertarians imagined, we would be much the lesser beings for it.
Ed form Redondo
(aka DancingBear)
Of course, (In)Justice Roberts can leave the bench, now . . . His vision for America was fulfilled by the Citizen’s United decision.
John Roberts leaving the Supreme Court? 'Makes me think there IS a God!
John Roberts, your health is far more important than some silly job. Please please please watch over your health and leave the SCROTUS. Think about your family.
Wal-Mart sales declined 2% last quarter at its retail outlets. Is this an indicator that we are far from the end of the recession.
"At the beginning of the recession, Wal-Mart and other discounters were seen as the beneficiaries, as consumers 'traded down' to cheaper options."
"The tough economy and high U.S. unemployment are also playing a big role."
So another Republican schmuck in Congress wants to put Reagan on the money. He wants to put him on the 50-dollar bill. I have to ask what makes Reagan more important (and better) than Grant in American heritage. But also, the Presidents on the front of the bills are associated in some way:
On the back of Jefferson is the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, because he wrote it.
On the back of Lincoln is the Lincoln Memorial. Duh.
On the back of Hamilton is the Treasury Building, because he was the first Secretary of the Treasury (but he was also a founding father, cowriting the Federalist Papers).
On the back of Jackson is the White House, because he changed its architecture, switching the north and south porticos around.
On the back of Grant is the Capitol, because it was expanded and given a new, larger dome during his Presidency.
On the back of Franklin is Independence Hall, because that's where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both of which he had a hand in, were signed.
So what would be on the back of Reagan? A woman on welfare driving a Cadillac? The Berlin Wall (a foreign location)? Soldiers on the beaches of Grenada? A fictional space laser? The Debt Clock? How do you draw a picture of jobs going overseas?
Hi Thom,
Well first off, the power-hungry conservative is always anti-change unless they are not in power. Consequently, they are unable to process the concept of "evolving" because theirs is constantly a struggle to return to the state at which THEY are in power and therefore, control. I have been noticing the un-holy union between conservative political power and popular christian religion such as the evangelical movement, is nothing new. This is the same social plague that has spread death and disease of the mind for centuries. They are spiritual elitist and believe that no one else should be allowed to participate in the political process besides them. I find it odd, speaking as a recovering fundamentalist christian, that controlling and influencing the political process is of such importance to these people. Their own Savior said, "Be no part of this world just as I am no part of this world." Jesus position was one of complete non-involvement in politics. It is a tragedy that, with the exception of Jehovah's Witnesses, more Christian's don't feel that way.